Dartmouth athletic communications has a story about safety Harrison Keith, the Big Green's honorable mention All-America choice as a junior who has stepped away from lacrosse to chase his football dreams. From the story:
Keith played in all 13 of men's lacrosse's games last spring, tallying 14 groundballs and six caused turnovers. His first-career goal was the game-winner against Bucknell in the season opener.
It's a season Keith will never forget, but very recently, Keith decided to step away from lacrosse.
"Playing football takes a toll on your body and although I love football and lacrosse, I did make the original commitment to play football here, and I'm hoping to continue to play football after Dartmouth," said Keith.
"But it was a tough decision."
And on the season ahead:
"We're returning a lot of core guys," said Keith. "It's always good to return a quarterback (Grayson Saunier) who has proven himself and has great experience. Next year, especially with the playoffs and the way FCS football is changing, we have really high expectations both in the league and to compete for a national championship.
"The stakes are that much higher," Keith continued. "And stepping into senior year, I want to go all-in on football to have the most success we can."
Read the full story HERE.
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The Dartmouth has a Q&A with Justin Lafleur, who worked under Rick Bender in the athletic communications office before taking over that operation a couple of years ago. Earlier this month he moved on to the University of Massachusetts, his alma mater. Find the story HERE.
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Joe Gilfedder, who Spencer Brown brought to Dartmouth as an assistant strength coach in 2015, now works for his old boss with the Rutgers football program. In a video podcast Gilfedder addresses his journey from three years working in Hanover, to seven years at Fordham and now reuniting with Brown at Rutgers. Watch the video HERE.
Find Gilfedder's Rutgers bio HERE and Brown's bio on the Rutgers site HERE.
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The Any Given Saturday message board has a thread about the Patriot League next fall noting that, "League members have 8 games scheduled vs FBS opponents set for 2026. The schedule features every league member except Lehigh and Georgetown."
Patriot League FBS games
Lafayette-Uconn
Villanova-Louisville
Colgate-Central Michigan
Fordham-Coastal Carolina
Holy Cross-Miami (Ohio)
Richmond-NC State
Bucknell-Pitt
W&M-Duke
That sent me scurrying to check out another regional conference:
NEC FBS Games
LIU-Kansas
LIU-Florida International
Central Connecticut-Toledo
Duquesne-Air Force
Duquesne-Washington State
Mercyhurst-New Mexico State
Mercyhurst-New Mexico
Mercyhurst-Western Kentucky
Robert Morris-Akron
Robert Morris-Buffalo
Wagner-James Madison
Wagner-Cal
Stonehill-UMass
Stonehill-Ohio
And that sent me scrambling to check out the Ancient Eight:
Ivy League FBS Games
None
New Hampshire, in case you are wondering, will play at Syracuse this fall.
Green Alert Take: I get it. If even one of those Patriot League or NEC teams wins one of those games it will be a big upset. But there's tremendous excitement for the players and their fans to at least have a chance. And for the record, the bet here if Dartmouth played UMass three times in the last half dozen years the Big Green would have won at least one of those games and quite possibly two. How cool would that have been?
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Several NCAA football rules could be changing. From a story posted on ESPN (LINK):
Division I football rules makers have proposed a one-year trial rule allowing a player disqualified for targeting for the first time to play in his team's next game regardless of which half the penalty was assessed, the NCAA announced Thursday.
And . . .
Under the Division I Football Rules Subcommittee's proposal, a player disqualified for targeting a second time during the season would sit out the first half of the next game. A third targeting ejection in the same season would cause the offending player to sit out the entire next game.
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And finally, another proposal that would have brought a smile to the late, great Steve Ward, Dartmouth's longtime equipment manager who passed away several years ago:
The rules subcommittee proposed that players wear leg coverings from the top of their shoes to the bottom of their pants. Players would have to wear the same covering style and colors for that particular game.
And . . .
"The current look of the uniform is clearly not meeting the expectations of the college football community," (A.J. Edds, rules subcommittee chair and vice president of football administration for the Big Ten) said. "This will take a collective effort by administrators, coaches and officials to communicate expectations to players and equipment managers. This proposal, we believe, is definitive and gives us a chance for consistent enforcement across Division I football."
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EXTRA POINT
Heading into Hanover shortly for the best of all reasons. We're picking up That Certain Dartmouth '14, who flew in on a red eye from Bryce Canyon (actually Cedar City) for a campus speaking engagement. The college is off the hook for a hotel room because she's be staying with us. Hooray!
